The Sydney Holocaust Museum and Its Significance

The Holocaust Museum plays many roles in contemporary society, but their main focus is to account for the Holocaust and educate the public to improve their understanding of how the holocaust qualifies as genocide. Both are done through the combined efforts of their guided tour of the museum and its exhibits and personal accounts from Holocaust survivors in person. The museum uses a range of sources and evidence for historical accuracy and further education. Through this, they are able to effectively educate the public on how the acts taken against European Jews by the Nazis and the stages of the Holocaust qualify as genocide. It is important for us in contemporary society to be taught of the horrors of the holocaust and genocide to prevent future horrific treatment of groups and individuals. The museum doesn’t take its role lightly and pushes the ideas of humanity without holding back from sharing the sensitive details.

The museum describes each of the holocaust stages and steps in the Nazi's attempt to systematically murder the Jews in Europe. Each point in the museum accounts for each stage of the holocaust as well as points of interest or significant lead-up events all of which are set out in chronological order throughout the museum. This way of presenting information helped to frame visitors’ thinking and make sense of how the Holocaust played out and contributes to the visitor’s understanding of each stage of genocide. The goal of each is to provide an accurate account of events and further enhance visitors’ knowledge of how these actions taken against the Jewish population were a form of genocide.

The beginning points provide context on post-war Germany and the rise of Nazism. It gave context to Hitler and the Nazi party’s ideologies and motivation for their efforts in using propaganda to spread their ant-sematic ideologies across the German population. It explained how through The Nuremberg Laws Germany was enabled to classify who was a Jew and exclude and isolate Jews from society by making them viewed as different and detestable. The Museum explores the idea of dehumanization as a way to further classify Jews as different and justify inhumane treatment towards them. The theme of dehumanization of the Jews was explored throughout the museum tour with an explanation of the star of David’s symbolism and its impact on Jews by visually distinguishing them from Non-Jews making them targets to abuse and isolation, a stage in the process of genocide. The museum displays artifacts of cloth stars that were sewn to the clothing of Jews accompanied by experiences from the wearers. This differentiation was used for the polarisation of Jews and non-Jews in Germany along with laws denying relations between the groups and their eventual division.

The museum goes in-depth on the concept of ghettos and concentration camps as a way to separate the groups and to inflict gruesome living conditions and treatment on Jews for their calculated diminishment, justifying how this is a clear stage of genocide. Within the museum, empathy is pulled from visitors through the in-depth analysis of the treatment of Jews and their suffering and by humanizing the European Jews in a way the Germans didn’t which played a role in past Germans justifying the holocaust. This is done through recounts of personal experiences and personal items of victims displayed in the museum. These items accompanied by the stories of their original owners make the museum experience even more heartbreaking. Further humanization is drawn on by a meeting with a holocaust survivor sharing a recount of their personal experiences during the holocaust. It provides a primary source to the public, bringing the horrors of the holocaust to life with a personal story, enhancing the realism and emotional impact. In her recount survivor, Evon touches on the treatment of Jews and how she herself was treated by the Nazis stating “The cruelty is something you cannot possibly imagine”. Evon tells of her experience during the stage of ghettoization and deportation recounting her life in a ghetto and her eventual deportation to the concentration camp Auschwitz. At this camp, Jews were systematically mass murdered and their belongings collected, Evon;s job was to collect and organize these valuables. She explained how she was made to work against her will at a concentration camp as a teenager where daily she “could hear children coughing, people crying, and (I) could also smell the burning of the human flesh. Everyday.” Evon shared how the Nazis would use the hair of Jewish victims to make blankets saying: “...you walk through the museum you see a rug which is made from human hair. There were wagons and wagons of human hair.” Visitors can see an example of this horrific use of murdered Jews parts exposing the horrific dehumanizing and grueling nature of the holocaust.

Hearing these details of the nature of the Holocaust from a victim in person makes you vulnerable feeling empathy, sadness, and frustration to make the concept of genocide feel more personal and closer to home. This is one of the most successful ways the museum exposes the horrors and psychological impact of this time period on victims.

An impactful event that was recounted in the museum was Kristallnacht, a pogrom against Jews by Germans and the SA, the Nazi’s paramilitary. When a polish Jew assassinated Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat, the opportunity was taken by Nazis to rile up the Germans, resulting in Kristallnacht. Authorities watched without intervening as rioters raided Jewish homes and facilities, destroyed synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses, and arrested thousands of Jewish men. Many Jews were assaulted. The aftermath was German Jews were responsible for paying a large fine for the damage caused during the riot. The museum explains how the was a wake-up call to many Jews as they realized that anti-Semitism was not temporary and was only going to get worst. This led to the migration of many Jews to countries outside of Germany and Europe.

The museum’s effective use of a wide range of sources including physical evidence and remains from the holocaust, written context and testimonials of Holocaust survivors as well as comprehensive evidence to enhance the public's understanding, emotional response, and the accuracy of the overall information presented to visitors.

Through an exploration of events and actions taken against the Jews in Germany the public gains understanding of how the holocaust qualifies as genocide. Not only with you gain a better understanding of the Holocaust but be impacted emotionally and gain a connection to the victims. The experience in the museum can be described as heartbreaking, exposing, and confronting in a way that makes what you learn memorable and important, one of its biggest strengths.